Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons slams team's international cricket schedule, appeals for more matches against higher-ranked teams

Afghanistan has been cricket’s most successful story of the ongoing decade. From being in division five of ICC World Cricket League in 2008 to being awarded Test status in 2017, the stupendous rise of the Afghan national team has been a rare upturn for the war-ravaged nation. The world cricket took notice of the Asian team at the 2015 ODI World Cup hosted in Australia and New Zealand. Afghanistan’s campaign ended with the group stage with one victory against Scotland but they earned rounds of applause for giving heavyweights like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh a run for their money. [caption id=“attachment_4509247” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Phil Simmons and Asghar Afghan. PTI[/caption] It was followed by a successful run at 2016 World T20, where they were part of Super 10 and also registered a win over eventual champions Windies. In 2017, they were awarded Test status by ICC along with Ireland. Afghanistan qualified for 2019 World Cup by beating Windies in the final of Cricket World Cup Qualifier. Asghar Afghan and Co have scaled unimagined heights in a very short period of time and more will be expected from them once the 2019 World Cup comes around but the team management is worried that lack of international cricket could hinder their progress. Afghanistan played only two bilateral ODI series in 2018 - against Zimbabwe and Ireland - and have only one scheduled, next year, ahead of the ICC event. Speaking to Firstpost, Afghanistan coach said the current cricket calendar hugely favours the established teams and demanded more matches for his team. “We have five ODIs other teams have 15 and these are big teams. So they know something that we need to learn because we only have five ODIs against Ireland in February-March. Going into the World Cup, we should have 15-20 ODIs against all teams above us. It’s not the right way. We should have lot more international cricket against teams which are above us,” said ESPNcricinfo expert Simmons. The former Windies all-rounder said he’s happy with how his team performed at the Asia Cup but hopes to ring changes ahead of the World Cup. “Looking at the preparation for 2019 World Cup the first thing was the Asia Cup and out target at the tournament was to reach the Super Fours and final. But in the end of the day we lost out in the final over in couple of games and we didn’t reach the finals,” Simmons said. “We haven’t sat down and discussed where we want to be in 2019 World Cup because the preparation is just about starting. The Asia Cup just finished so now we are going to look at the 2019 World Cup. Because it’s two different things conditions wise. The 2019 World Cup is in England. Few things need to change for that.” Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has been a revelation since bursting on to the stage. The 20-year-old has led their bowling attack impressively but Simmons is well aware that his team’s strength is largely one dimensional and hopes that his pacers and batsmen will come good at the mega event. Asked on what improvements he seeks in the Afghan team, Simmons said: “There are two big focus areas. The batsmen need to put together 280-300 score. We as a batting unit need to click because that is going to be the benchmark there. In Asia Cup we set 250 and we did it every time, so we are gonna sit down now and see how we are going to get 300 in UK.” “And the second part is how to get our fast bowlers to take wickets especially in the beginning of the innings. Because our spinners do the job consistently in the middle and later overs in any conditions but we need two fast bowlers who can get the wicket at the top and even in the middle sometime.” The Afghanistan Cricket Board recently hosted the inaugural edition of Afghanistan Premier League (APL), a T20 franchise tournament, in UAE. And Simmons is hopeful that like Indian Premier League (IPL), the exposure to international cricketers in APL will help the young Afghan cricketers in improving their games. “We have seen in IPL, how young Indian players have learnt from international players. So, it will be nice if young Afghan players learn from the international players around them from the likes of Chris Gayle and Ben Cutting,” Simmons signed off.